Press Release.
Crisis Memo.
Critical Review.
Writing Samples
My first love. Writing has always been my most favorite pastime—a skill that I have exercised at every organization I have worked with or contributed to. Below are just a few, single page samples of my work.
For the press.
Plants, zombies and angry birds dominate the current mobile gaming world, but a small team of independent artists are combining their powers to add a bit of magic to the industry. Sensing the need for something a little more recognizable, the Atlanta based team conceived the wizarding, trolling epic of a pair of twins as they journey through the harrowing outskirts of their recently inherited empire.
Kingdom of Kuru, the premier mobile game from BRIKYM studio, strikes a fine balance between nostalgia and innovation. It’s gameplay that will feel familiar to anyone who has ever touched a classic gaming console, while small tweaks to that format help your fingers feel right at home on a touchscreen. It looks like nothing you’ve seen before—visually, the developers put every millimeter of the game’s screen to perfect use. The characters themselves seem to come from a society about as diverse as ours; every skin color, body type, hair texture, and even species of woman and man will show up before the game’s credits roll.
Kuru is among the most fun and refreshing mobile games we’ve seen yet, but the developers at BRIKYM say they’re just getting started. If you manage to triumph through the game’s challenges, a surprising reveal in the end tells us that there’s much more to the story than we’ve seen thus far. Exciting new abilities, fantastically designed levels and an engagingly original tale will keep players hooked until then. We’re looking forward to what comes next from this blooming young studio, but for now, finding Kiros and Kara’s ice ability is at the top of our to-do lists. Kingdom of Kuru is available now on Apple’s App Store and is coming soon to all Android platforms.
Crisis Memo
As we enter week five of our cyber-attack, we have transitioned from an upside down world with only our most basic utilities available, to a firm indication that that all core operational systems will be online by the end of the week. The updated message on our website reads as follows:
With our business continuity plan governing our operations, it is gratifying to acknowledge that all our core systems are either now online or are expected to be online by the end of the week. Our EDI connectivity and engagement with customers and service providers will further progress through the end of March. We recognize there is still much work to be done before we fully return to normal operations. We remain grateful for the loyalty, support, and reassurance of our employees, customers, and external partners (including service providers, carriers, law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and commercial cybersecurity experts).
This is an incredible accomplishment and has been achieved through a tremendous amount of time, effort, and knowledge. It is yet another example of our outstanding culture winning the day.
While all core systems are expected to be online by the end of the week, it is important to note that some functionality will be limited. We’ve spent many years optimizing our EDI processes—including the various tools and technologies connected to our core systems, and these items will still take time to re-implement. The good news is that we continue to progress and have done so with incredible speed. As we move forward, it is important to continually focus on this cyber security mindset in all of our recovery efforts.
One cautionary note with the good news about our systems, is recognizing that we have customers who have moved business to other providers while we work to repair out network through the cyber-attack. I know we want to regain those customers as quickly as possible; however, we need to do so in a responsible way. We cannot ask customers to return until we are confident we can provide our traditional level of service, which all customers have become accustomed to.
Our work will continue to evolve over the next couple of weeks. A great amount of effort will be required to incorporate data from our manual backup procedures and third-party solutions into our core operating systems. This is not an easy task and is certainly something that is unfamiliar to most of us. I appreciate the focus and priority everyone is giving this, and I am confident that we will overcome this next challenge in our recovery efforts.
I understand that many of you have been working well beyond what is fair to ask. For this I am incredibly grateful and simply cannot say thank you enough, or loudly enough, to be heard in the way it is deserved.
Finally, a word about work-life balance. We still have much work to do, but it is not going to happen if everyone is broken down. It is time that we begin to shift and ask ourselves what must be accomplished immediately versus what can be done over time. There will be a lot of work that can be done over time and we must begin to differentiate between the two, so that we all begin to get some of our personal time back.
Again, my thanks to our entire team. We all work in a very special place, but only because of the people who work here.
Critical Review
Bird Box offers nothing new. It sets a clear set of rules from the very beginning that its characters must follow in order to stay alive—not unlike this year's A Quiet Place. Its plot is incredibly reminiscent of popular dystopian films like Dawn of the Dead or I Am Legend; however, unlike either of those movies, the monsters that haunt these characters are never seen. It is a growing tactic in storytelling that allows studios to focus their budgets on the talent onscreen instead of expensive digital effects, and you know what? It works.
What immediately pulls you into the world of Bird Box is the explicit seriousness and undoubted believability with which our main character explains the rules. "Do not remove your blindfolds, you will die," she explains, before the viewer has even had a chance to get comfortable with any of its characters. The movie does right to invest its time and energy into Bullock—who, even when silently writhing in a corner, never allows you the peace of mind necessary to forget that death is pressing and eagerly vying for every character involved.
It is this outstanding cast that cements Bird Box as one of the year's most profound films. The actors and actresses present do a fantastic job of balancing the film's horror, humor, tension and adventure, while not overwhelming you with the sheer helplessness of this world. You will be made uncomfortable. You will wonder what you'd have done in these situations. You might expect a horror classic on the levels of It or The Ring before it; you'd be disappointed.
Do not go into this movie expecting to be blown away, but to be engaged, as it does exceptional work with the arguably typical tools it has within its disposal. Bird Box isn't a must-see, but a should-see, if only to understand what is or isn’t necessary to make a horror film compelling.